The US Forest Service national headquarters in Washington, DC is offering a 3-6 month ORISE research fellowship for a lichenologist/data analyst beginning between March and June, 2020.

 

The general task is to develop a reporting system for lichen air quality bio-monitoring data.  The reports will be used to track Wilderness stewardship performance and evaluate trends in air quality as a Wilderness character.  More specifically, the incumbent, mentored by national air and wilderness staff, would use lichenology and data analysis skills to develop reporting templates that draw from existing metrics, scores, critical loads, and values in the agency’s lichen monitoring database.  The reports will be short, just 1-2 pages for Wilderness Stewardship Performance and no more than a paragraph for Wilderness Character Monitoring.  Lichen community and/or elemental analysis data exist for about ¾ of the agency’s 441 Wilderness areas.

 

This would be a very satisfying and exciting opportunity for the right person to advance the uses of lichen monitoring to help protect air quality in wilderness areas, to get to know a major federal agency at the national level, and to explore the sights and cultural, historical, natural, and culinary features of the DC area.  There is a stipend commensurate with the person’s academic qualifications and experiences (GS 7-12 level), health benefits are also provided. It may also be possible to cover travel costs to and from DC.

 

The ideal candidate has completed an undergraduate degree, and may be currently a Masters or PhD level student, post doc, or a recent grad (within 5 years of most recent degree).   Interest in the project, a solid work ethic, database and data analysis skills, and familiarity with the names of lichens and field botany/forest biology in general, are key.  The funds expire early September 2020.  ORISE (Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Engineering) is a program of ORAU (OakRidge Associated Universities) to promote training opportunities for early career scientists and educators.  It is funded in part by the US Forest Service through a partnership with the Department of Energy.

 

If interested, please contact me at linda.geiser@usda.gov.  I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have.  You will also need to fill out an application through Zintellect: https://www.zintellect.com/Opportunity/Details/USDA-USFS-2019-0182.